Press Release

GALERIE PATRICK EBENSPERGER
Press Kit
Hajnal Németh: Work Song
September 12 – November 15, 2014
Galerie Patrick Ebensperger presents the exhibition Work Song by Hajnal Németh in the former
Crematory at Plantagenstraße 30, 13347 in Berlin-Wedding from September 12th until November
15th, 2014.
The opening will take place on Thursday, September 11th 2014 from 7 to 11pm.
At 9pm Boxerin Club (a band from Rome) and Izzy Linber (songwriter and singer from Madrid) will
perform the last act - Absolution and Epilogue - from the musical Work Song.
The musical Work Song has been originally produced and presented this year at Teatro Valle
Occupato in Rome. Among other works the exhibition includes a video documentation of the musical’s
opening night at Teatro Valle.
Working or singing?
The main issue of the piece is the unemployment in Italy, the content of the primary textbook and the
lyrics of the songs are based on interviews and researches in the region of Rome.
The musical divided in three parts can be considered experimental in the sense that it is a self-reflexive performance querying theatre as an expressive form and but also the genre of musical itself; in
other words – it is an avant-garde show based on reality. Beyond its self-reflexive nature, in terms of
form, it is an amalgam of genres, a process-based piece comprised of the formal elements of visual
arts, music, theatre, and formal elements of a demonstration or a psychodrama. The piece itself is
made up of improvisations developed during rehearsals, constructed on a basic framework comprising a schematic narrative and instructions.
The single essential story of the piece unfolds in the scope of a psychodrama from the future in 2032,
by evoking the childhood trauma of the protagonist, which happened in 2013.
The recollected tragedy is thus a current story, and is based in actual events: the circumstances of the
suicide of a man in his final desperation at having become unemployed. The story is delivered from
the point of view of the deceased family man’s niece, from a distance of 19 years.
The improvised dialogues and lyrics are conceived on the basis of interviews and quotations. Therefore, the piece is written based on an actual story and actually uttered sentences.
The musical’s fundamental composition is written in two versions with opposite meanings entitled
Work Song and Absolution. At the opening the last act of the musical - Absolution and Epilogue – is
performed live: a band rehearsal on stage, during which the lyrics of the song Absolution are transformed into the lyrics of Work Song.
Beside the video of the musical the exhibition presents the following works from the artist:
Crash – Passive Interview (2011), The Loser (2012), False Testimony – Version 3 (2013), Imagine War
(2014)
Crash – Passive Interview (2011) is an experimental opera based on 12 retelled stories of car accidents using the dialogical form, narrated in utmost minute detail and slowed down by memory. The
relation of man to drive shows an inclination of the fetishism towards technical objects.
The piece enriches the space by means of sound, creating an acousting experience and showed in
the form of a musical film, and light through extrem red light. This composition of objects, light and
sound turn the space into a emotional and even filmic sceneario, where drama and consciusness play
an important role.
This same installation was presented for the first time at the 54th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, at the Hungarian Pavilion.
The Loser (2012):
Two confessional monologues between a politican and a banker are sung, performed by four soloists
and completed with self-introductions by the choir.
The lyrics of the songs are based on shortened and rhythmical accounts of fallen leaders driven by
feeling of devotion, the experience of struggle and power, the ignorance of responsibility between the
individual and the collective, the faith in ideologies and its gradual loss. The carachters are different
but the outcome is the same. The degeneration and downfall from the initial enthusiasm are therefore
related elements in these testimonies.
False Testimony – Version 3 (2013)
The matter of this work is the Tiszaeszlár Trial of 1883. Following the disappearance of a 14-year-old
girl Eszter Solymosi on April 1, 1882, in the Hungarian village of Tiszaeszlár, local rumors and suspicions of Jewish ritual murder led to a high-profile murder case in the summer of 1883. The trial was
closely interwoven with the birth of modern antisemitism in Hungary: shortly after the verdict and a
spate of antisemitic riots around the country, Hungary’s first National Antisemitic Party (1883-1892)
was formed. “Tiszaeszlár” later became an important element in the radical Right’s historical narrative
and subsequent constructions of national martyrology.
The series of photographs entitled “Loud Place” documents the contemporary right-wing cult of
Eszter Solymosi and the grave erected in her honor in 1994. “Silent Place 1” shows the former courtroom
in its empty state, while “Silent Place 2” shows the Jewish cemetery in Tiszaeszlár which, today, is
unmarked, and enclosed by a concrete wall.
The central pieces of the exhibition, use the transcript of Miklós Erdély’s classic 1981 film “Verzió” to
rework one of the key scenes of the trial. In these video, a choir and 3 soloists are performing one
versions of the scene in which the prosecution’s witness, 14-year-old Móric Scharf, is trained to confess, which confession he later repeats over and over. Hajnal Németh, “by reenacting the story, she
directs attention to the present. She realizes a version whose framework is no longer late 19th century
Hungary, but a present-day workplace, an office where everyone is working as if nothing happened.”
(Szabolcs KissPál)
The photographs, videos and objects in the exhibition examine individual and collective memory and
identity, the Processes of psychological and cultural acquisition, and the learning of antisemitic witness and national martyrology.
Imagine War (2014) is a concert performance based on rewritten lyrichs of famous hist and sung by
a solo performer. The alteration of the most significant words transform the meaning of the original
songs. The transcriptions are interpreted by the performer in his own special musical way, this pushes
the borders between memory and consciousness one step further.
Hajnal Németh was born in Hungary in 1972, since 2002 she lives and works in Berlin.
The artist participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at prestigious art institutions in Europe,
America and Asia, including MUMOK, Vienna; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; The Kitchen, New York; Renaissance Society, Chicago; Tate Modern, London; Art Museum, Singapore; Ludwig-Museum, Budapest; TENT, Rotterdam; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Kunsthalle, Budapest; Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Comunidad de Madrid; 2nd Berlin Biennale, KW Berlin; Casino Luxembourg; Moderna
Museet, Stockholm; Musée d’Art moderne de Saint-Etienne; Picasso Museum, Barcelona; Palais de
Tokyo, Paris. She was representing Hungary at the Venice Biennale 2011.
For futher information: press@ebensperger.net or 030 46 06 58 21
Hajnal Németh . Work Song
Exhibition September 12 - November 15, 2014
Opening Thursday, September 11, 2014 from 7 to 11 pm
Place Galerie Patrick Ebensperger
Plantagenstraße 30, 13347 Berlin-Wedding
+52° 32’ 47.00”, +13° 21’ 58.64”
www.ebensperger.net
Opening Hours Tuesday-Saturday from 12 to 6 pm
Press Contact Ana Sánchez de Vivar
Tel +49 30 46065821, press@ebensperger.net